Hurrican experts expect September to be 'twice as busy' as normal

NVDL: the magic words are: 'water temperatures are slightly warmer than normal'. Gee whizz, I wonder how that happened? Maybe solar flares, UFO's shooting at the sea, or one bunch too many people barbecuing on a weekend?

Not long ago experts predicted an average Hurricane seasn. Then they predicted a slightly busier than normal season. Now it's twice as busy (which I reckon means VERY BUSY as opposed to NORMAL). I don't know about you but I'm kinda wondering whether scientists know a lot more, than say, a small child at kindergarten who watches TV.

Below are a few extracts from a fascinating MSNBC article:

The peak of hurricane season is not until Sept. 10 and this season already has 10 named storms, which is the long-term average for an entire season.

"Normally in an active season, there are bunches of hurricanes and lulls. It just doesn't seem like there's been bunches of lulls. I sure hope we're not talking (hurricanes) Christmas Eve," said meteorology professor Hugh Willoughby at Florida International University.

Twice as busy?
Two hurricane prognosticators — including William Gray, who pioneered the field of storm season forecasts — predicted Tuesday that this month would be almost twice as busy as an average September. They forecast five named storms, four of them hurricanes and two of them major.

These latest predictions cover only September and are not a revision of the season-long forecast, which called for a total of nine Atlantic hurricanes through November.

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com This NOAA satellite image taken Tuesday shows Tropical Storm Gustav about 30 miles west of Alexandria, Louisiana. In addition, Hurricane Hanna is noted about 50 miles northeast of Great Inagua Island in the southeastern Bahamas. To the east of Hanna is Tropical Storm Ike, which is located about 1200 miles east of the Leeward Islands. WASHINGTON - The tropics seem to be going crazy what with the remnants of Gustav, the new threat from Hanna, a strengthening Ike and newcomer Josephine. Get used to it. U.S. hurricane experts say all the weather ingredients, which normally fluctuate, are set on boil for the formation of storms. And it is going to stay that way for a while, they said. Four named storms at the same time is a bit odd, but not unprecedented, meteorologists said. In 1995 five named storms lived simultaneously. And in 1998 there were four hurricanes at the same. But wait and see what happens next.